We are the gateway to enlightenment. The music that has fallen thru the cracks. Those who should be king and those who will never be king share space with an inside look at the music business through the knowing eyes of a small independent label willing to offend the easily offended and to speak the truth while others spread lies and hype! Got that??

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

ESPN has no right to rock! Neither does the Hard Rock!

I just had to comment about the pathetic New Years Eve show on ESPN. In an attempt to be cool and use rock and roll for nefarious ends, ESPN brought on board the Troggs, NY Dolls, the Chesterfield KIngs and the Mooney Suzuki Live from the Hard Rock Cafe courtesy of Little Steven's Underground Garage. First, no underground show EVER charged $300 a ticket or the even more ridiculous price of $2000 for a reserved 4 seat table. These people are killing rock and taking 4 of my favorite bands along! That alone would rate a big FU to the Hard Rock and the UG. Still, ESPNs coverage was blasphemous. Nowhere in their ads did they even mention any of the bands, as if they were embarassed to! Then they didnt let any of the bands even complete ONE song. What happened to cool shows like Don Kirshners Rock Concert and In Concert? What corporate asshole decided that I would be happy hearing song snippets from my favorite bands?? Did they really think I wanted to see Stuart Scott playing air guitar to "Wild Thing"? Please ESPN--get out of the rock and roll business and stick to sports. As far as the Hard Rock goes, you wont see me there ever! We can rock and roll without the help of those who wish to line their pockets at our expense!

In direct contrast, Sirius radio broadcast the entire Patti Smith show from the Bowery Ballroom on New Year's Eve, uncut and uninterrupted. The sound was great, and Tom Verlaine guested on guitar making it a unique event. The band really rocked on material old and new and Patti let us know how she felt about our President when she indicted him for various nasty deeds before lauching into a spirited "Rock and Roll Nigger" Their version of "mama told me not to come" was a riot as Patti rambled about someone dosing her spinach and waliking thru gelatin for 100s of years while Verlaine let rip a swampy Fogerty style solo. It again reflects the sad state of affairs in this country when we have to pay to have uncensored radio. Nevertheless, the show was great and thank you Sirius--now wise up and get more varied music programming! Its pretty bad when the Canadian station CBC RAdio 3 plays better stuff than the numerous US stations. Unfortunately even the Underground Garage seems overformatted as the DJs arent even allowed to play their own stuff unless approved by the mgmt! Thank God for 2 hours of the Cosmic Commander on Left Of Center! Nothings gonna please everybody, but hey, we are paying for variety so lets have a little more OK! And all you people who are trying to destroy music in a quest for a fortune, get lost and leave us alone!